Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 2021 

This animation shows the daily Arctic sea ice and seasonal land cover change progress through time, from the yearly maximum ice extent on March 21 2021, through its minimum on September 16 2021. Over the water, Arctic sea ice changes from day to day showing a running 3-day minimum sea ice concentration in the region where the concentration is greater than 15%. The blueish white color of the sea ice is derived from a 3-day running minimum of the AMSR2 89 GHz brightness temperature. The yellow boundary shows the minimum extent averaged over the 30-year period from 1981 to 2010. Over the terrain, monthly data from the seasonal Blue Marble Next Generation fades slowly from month to month. The faint circle that appears periodically close to the pole is an artifact of the visualization process, and does not represent a real feature. 

An analysis of satellite data by NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder shows that the 2021 minimum extent, which was likely reached on Sept. 16, measured 1.82 million square miles (4.72 million square kilometers). 


Data source: JAXA GCOM-W1 AMSR2 10-km daily sea ice concentration and the 10 km daily 89 GHz brightness temperature. 

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